As it became clear that Robert J. Dole was going to finish second in February's New Hampshire primary, the Kansas senator, who will soon vacate his seat, collected himself and approached the microphone at his Manchester campaign headquarters.

Trying to remain optimistic, Dole looked out at the throng and said, "You know why they call this the Granite State...because it is so hard to crack."

Dole's stunning defeat in New Hampshire to conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan was the major surprise in a presidential primary season which was over before the middle of March.

Buchanan's protectionist and anticorporate message resonated well in New Hampshire, a state still hurting from the recession of the late 1980s and traditionally leery of the federal government.

Buchanan captured 27 percent of the vote in New Hampshire, while Dole finished a close second with 26 percent.

"This is a victory for a brand new, bold conservatism in politics...giving a voice to the voiceless," Buchanan told his supporters on primary night in Manchester. "It is a conservatism that looks out for the men and women of this country whose jobs have been sacrificed."

As Buchanan left that night to campaign in South Carolina, Harvard Republicans joined their national counterparts in dropping their collective jaws at the prospect of the former host of CNN's Crossfire winning the Republican nomination.

"Many of his ideas are not in tune with those of Newt Gingrich and many of the mainstream Republicans," said David S. DeSimone '98, vice president of the Harvard Republican Club. "Buchanan's economic policy is a protectionist policy, isolationist in nature, and that's not a part of the Republican Party."

Buchanan and his cadre of followers would never again achieve the level of success they did that cold February night in New Hampshire.

As the campaign moved south and west, the Buchanan message found fewer supporters. The Dole campaign surged to the front, brushing back the red and black plaid shirts of former Tennessee gov. Lamar Alexander and the flat-tax proposal of millionaire publisher Malcolm S. "Steve" Forbes.

The Yankee Primary

On the road to the Republican nomination, Dole came to New England on the first Tuesday in March to compete in the first-ever Yankee Primary. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and Maine all held primaries on the same day to choose delegates to the national party conventions.

Regional political observers say the Yankee Primary was intended to assert New England's influence on the national nominating process.

"Originally, we were on March 12, Super Tuesday, and we thought Massachusetts would get lost," said Jack McCarthy, chief of staff to Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin. "It made sense for us to regionalize. A lot of issues were the same, and we could have the candidates talk about what we were interested in."

All of the major candidates spent some time in the region leading up to the March 5 Yankee Primary.